The Report Abuse! icon was created by the Office of the Attorney General in cooperation with a number of social networking sites. It is designed to make it easier for Internet users to identify and quickly report abuses on-line, and establishes best practices which define how social networking sites should handle reports of abuse.

The icon will direct complaints to social networking site operators, who, under the best practices, are required to review the reports and in many cases refer them to appropriate law enforcement agencies. It also allows users to link to the CyberTip hotline of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and provides users advice on when to immediately report potential crimes to the police. It also provides users general advice on surfing the Web safely.

"We are bombarded with reports of abusive and predatory behavior on social networking sites and the failure of sites to adequately respond to serious and significant complaints,'' Milgram said. "We believe this new icon will allow those who surf the net to be able to swiftly report abuse and potential criminal behavior by creating important on-line links and blocking abusive visitors.''

"Unfortunately, sexual predators use social networking sites to identify and contact potential victims and social networking sites can be used for cyber-bullying or cyber-harassment,'' Milgram added. "Use of the icon will empower users by giving them an easily recognizable mechanism to quickly and easily report abusive activity. This is meant to protect kids and young adults and is a cooperative effort with social networking sites to make them safer.''

Milgram was joined today by representatives of myYearbook.com, which was co-founded by Dave and Catherine Cook of Montgomery, N.J. The Report Abuse! safety icon is also going to be posted by Community Connect, which owns and operates five multi-cultural social networking sites including Black Planet.com, MiGente.com, and AsianAve.com. The Attorney General entered into formal agreements with myYearbook.com and Community Connect on the use of the Report Abuse! icon. Community Connect says it is the nation's largest niche social networking company with more than 19 million members, and myYearbook.com says it reaches 4.6 million visitors each month.

"We believe it is vital to give users every opportunity to identify and swiftly report inappropriate content,'' said Catherine Cook, myYearbook.com co-founder. "We will place the Report Abuse! icon at the top of every page making it easy for our users to report inappropriate behavior.''

Bernadette Sweeney, director of member services at Community Connect added in a statement, "We hope this standardized method for reporting abuse will help increase member safety and awareness. Our members are our number one concern and we strongly believe they will benefit from this initiative.''

Milgram today sent letters to other social networking sites and to attorneys general throughout the country asking them to partner in promoting industry-wide adoption of the icon and the best practices that guide its use. "I believe we can make the Report Abuse! icon a universal, easily recognizable symbol of safety and effective reporting,'' Milgram wrote to her colleagues.

The best practices guide calls for the icon to be placed in a prominent location on each Web page and once clicked, the user should be taken to a reporting page that will have mandatory categories for abuse reporting. Topics range from predator alert to child pornography to cyber-bullying. The reporting page must advise the user that he or she should contact the police if they believe someone's safety is at risk, including suicide attempts. The icon should also lead users to safety tips, and should allow a user to block the person whom the reporting user believes has been abusive.

The Report Abuse! icon is one of several initiatives undertaken by the Attorney General in connection with Internet Safety, including training of school teachers and administrators, and identifying convicted sexual offenders with profiles on social networking sites. Following MySpace's identification of 268 New Jersey offenders with MySpace profiles, the Attorney General asked other social networking sites to run similar checks to determine whether convicted sexual offenders are on their websites.